Eat to Live, and Love to Eat with Ayurveda

The opinions, fads and noise about food, diets and eating is perplexing and overwhelming. There sheer volume Ayurvedic principles about food can be a bit much to digest, so here I am putting a vast amount of food information into a bite-sized nutshell, most of which is very practical and more about how to approach eating, than what to eat. I hope these considerations are helpful.

1. Respect Your Difference. One man (or woman's) food is another mans poison. Just because a certain diet (carnivore, keto, vegan, raw food, paleo, gluten free, intermittent fasting etc.) worked amazingly for one person, or a eliminating or focusing on a certain food elicited drastic changes for another person, it doesn't make it a universal principle and now everybody everywhere should do the same! The online world is full of this sort of overzealousness, so take care with what you hear. Before prescribing a diet, the ayurveda approach considers: - your innate constitution (prakruti),

   - your current state of health, including any imbalances or disease conditions (vikruti) - your ability to digest (agni)

   - the presence of unmetabolised waste products in your body (ama)

   - the season (rtu) - what your body is accustomed to and tolerates (saatmya)

   - the climate

   - your life phase

   - and importantly, your likes and dislikes! The combination of all these factors will create a unique profile for you.
   

2. Ask yourself, How Do I Feel When I Eat This Food? Sounds straightforward enough, but if we are told frequently enough that something is incredibly healthy (and we adopt this belief), we may push a 'top-down' approach, where we let our belief over ride our body and it's sensations. We tell ourselves something is good, even if it gives us indigestion, gas, bloating, constipation or diarrhea. We may even persist with this long term, and over time these small warning signs start to turn into more deeply-set disease. It is really important to respect the messages of the body.
   

3. Leave Room For Flexibility. There is no one perfect diet for health purposes. What worked at one stage, may cause problems later on. Or maybe we just stick with the same thing for too long. Maybe something is working, then we hit a major life event like puberty, pregnancy or menopause and the needs of the body morph. We need to have the mental flexibility to adapt to changing requirements. The natural world gives us seasonal availability, where foods are in fluctuating abundance or scarcity across the seasons. Seasonal eating is one way to be flexible and also to align with the natural world. But we may also need to adjust to personal life seasons, too.
   

   

4. Watch What You Crave.

   Cravings are another communication signal from a body hoping to find homeostasis (physiological balance). However, some cravings are health-giving, and others are not. If we have a little understanding of what is driving an unhealthy craving, we can look for healthier ways to serve our needs. For example:

   Are you chowing down on a tub of ice-cream every day? Perhaps your pitta needs some addressing. Try a sweetened hot milk drink, sweet rice, or sorbet, all of which will have a similar effect without the intense artifical sweetness of sugary ice-cream and the congestion. Or perhaps you can't get through a day without coffee? Some people do better with coffee (kapha), but others may be needing a little bitter (pitta) or actually some rest or a milky hot drink to replenish their energy reserves. For some people (pitta types) a Vitamin C hit from fresh fruit in the morning can kick start the natural energy, or perhaps a chicory drink to get bitter liver stimulation going. Cravings can be complex, with physical, mental and emotional drivers mixed together, so sometimes may need to additional support to understand.
   

5. Consider That Food Should Nourish our Senses, Not Just Our Bellies and Bodies. I love that Ayurveda recognises the holistic nourishment that food can provide. Food should be appealing - smells, mixed flavours, textures and healthy condiments. It should provoke some appetite. We should look forward to eating it. At least our eyes, nose, tongue and sense of touch can appreciate our food (not sure about hearing though!) As well as nourishing our senses, food should leave us feeling satisfied. Not just belly-full satisfaction, but to the point of feeling content. One way to easily add satisfaction without masses of additional fat, salt and sugar is to get familiar with herbs and spices. Herbs and spices are colourful, smell fascinatingly good and really turn your tastebuds on, all of which create a deeper kind of satisfaction with your food.
   

   

6. Avoid Processed Foods If you can't figure out where it has originated from, best to choose something else. Freshness is equate to prana (a vital energy force that coordinates essential movements in the body). Prana means food still has vibrancy, colour, juiciness, flavour complexity and maybe a subtle but inviting smell. Food from a can or a packet might have these things added back artificially (interesting, meaning that we like and crave these measures of prana), but it is far from real prana. For sure, this may not be possible 100% of the time, but if real food makes up 80% of our diet, then we'll automatically be doing pretty good.

Eat to Live, Not Live to Eat.